The midland journal., 1887-06-24
The Driven Well Patents.

noo ahli meu Iue leSdhty vi UHe driven
we'll patents and of the reissue. This
decision puts an end to long and expen
sive litigation involving millions OF
dollars, and in which thousands of
farmers are pecuniarily interested. Col.
Nelson W. Green, the patentee. invent
ed the method Of the driven we'll while
IN com mand of the Seventy-Sixth New
York Volunteers in 1861, as a means of
getting water for his troops, He made
no effort to obtain patent for many
years after this. Ii he had secured a
patent at ouce it would have expired
and the invention would long ago have
become public property. When he did
claim a patent the method of driving
wells had cone into general use, most
people supposiDg the invention was free
to all.
Mr.. Green and his agents have for
years been busily engaged in collecting
royalties from farmers and others hav-
ing driven wells whose construction
they supposed they had fully paid for.
1t can easily be seen that this decision
OF the highest court will work serious
hardship to thousands, and in many
cases it will be practical injustice
Much will now depend upon the
patentee. Millions of dollars are with
in his grasp, and if he stays his hand it
will be something new in the exper-
ience Of those dealing with him. Avar.
ice grows faster than increasing wealth
IN the experience of most men. Pos
sibly the litigant in full possession of
his patent may be less grasping than
while contending for it. To his favor,
whatever it may prove to be-, those
who have been using his invention
must now look. Further litigation is
now Of course impossible, since the lie.
gality of the patents has been finally
sustained. The number Of driven wells
is variously estimated at from 100000
to 100000. A moderate charge on
the lowest estimated number will place
the inventor among the many million
aires of the country. And it would
seem that moderate royalty should
content him.
1t is not true that the patentee will
have to deal exclusively with farmers
using driven wells for procuring small
supplies of water. The system has
been extensively used for deep boring
for large manufactures, and even for
the supply of water for cities. In
Brooklyn driven wells have increased
the water supply for the city reservoir
at the rate of 100000 gallons per
day. In Newark, N. j., it has increas
the wster supply 290, 100000 of gallons
in four months. If these wells have
not been made under leases from the
patentee, heavy charges will be made
now.
The chief vice of our patent system
is that it allows patentees to overlook
the parties concerned in the infringe
ments of their rights, and find their
remedy from those who have innocently
purchased or are otherwise using their
inventions. This law, made too exclu-
sively in the interest of the patentee,
throws the burden of litigation, and of
the final defeat if it come, mainly upon
the farmers of the country. They are
always responsible and their property
can always be got at The willy, oily
agent may be in Europe or Asia when
the patentee comes around with his
claim, and have no visible property
anywhere. Take, for example, the case
of the thousands of driven wells put
down on farmers land for convenience
in watering their stock. The men who
did the work charged enough so that
their profit from the we'll was greater
probably in many cases than that of the
farmer. Yet the latter will under pres
ent laws be held solely responsible. 1t
is high time that this was changed.
Farmers organizations, especially
Oranges, have for years asked such a
reform, but the money or other influence
of patentees has been more potent than
their demands for justice. Now this
demand should be made so strong that
neither, Congress nor the Senate can
refuse to hear it.
Such change in the law is needed |
in the interest even of inventors. While
the innocent and unsuspecting purchas-
er of a patented article is placed in the
position of receiver Of the stolen
property, it is scarcely to be wondered
at that farmers resist every effort to
break their traditional conservatism.
With the collection of royalties on
driven wells, paid for years before, it is
scarcely to be wondered at that many
farmers regard every new improvement
as only device to entrap them. 1t is
an explanation of what is called old
fogyism that has not often been consid-
cred as it should be. If it affects
farmers worse than others it is only
because their property cannot be hid
den, and when obligations are made
there is no way to avoid paying them.
The patent laws as they now are strike
at the basis of all honest methods of
doinn huSinaSc in naw ;nvart;ons